A Boston suburb has achieved — and maintained — Vision Zero results "almost unheard of in any urban area."
Somerville, Massachusetts has gone four years without a single traffic fatality. The Boston Globe reports that the city — a densely populated inner-tier urban suburb of Boston — leveraged everything from speed humps to flower beds as tools to achieve "results almost unheard of in any urban area, much less the most densely populated city in New England."
"Three other Massachusetts cities, including Boston, subscribe to a policy called Vision Zero that incorporates traffic controls and street designs to eliminate roadway fatalities completely. Only in Somerville has that become a reality," reports the Globe. Between 2024 and 2025 alone, serious crashes in Somerville dropped by 50 percent.
Read the full story, below. It includes a graph of data showing fatal crash rates in Massachusetts' largest 25 cities since 2021.
Read the full story: Somerville has gone 4 years without a traffic death. Here’s how New England’s densest city did it.
Massachusetts town celebrates 3 years with no traffic deaths
Somerville is following Hoboken's Vision Zero playbook with impressive results.
Mamdani overhauls NYC's Vision Zero plan with 100 new policy goals
The overhaul aims to reduce traffic deaths and make streets safer for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers through lower speed limits, new safety infrastructure and more.
US casts sole dissenting vote against UN road safety declaration
The UN declaration calls for cutting road deaths in half by 2030.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
Northwest rail fans eager for Sept. 30 debut of Amtrak’s Airo fleet
Get ready for that new train smell and more seats. But they won’t go faster or run more frequently on the Cascades route in Washington and Oregon.
Alabama scores up to $2.5 billion federal loan for largest infrastructure project in state’s history
The Mobile River Bridge and Bayway Project aims to ease congestion at Alabama’s worst bottleneck.
Novel study finds extreme state-by-state disparity in housing construction timelines
The first comprehensive working paper on U.S. construction timelines also found that the permitting process for multi-family projects has slowed nationwide.
California may destroy its beaches trying to save homes from El Niño
Boulders and seawalls can protect homes from waves, but ultimately destroy sandy beaches.
California high-speed rail accomplishes only one legislative goal in 2026
The majority of the agency's failed pitches were never developed into written proposals.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Thousand Oaks
City of Wisconsin Rapids
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
Northern Illinois Transit Authority (NITA)
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello